Some Days
by Mrs. Jean Grey-Summers
Summary: Jean and Scott step out for lunch and end up changing a person's view on mutants...


Alright, guys, it's official. No doubting it now. I've lost it. First I write a story about Duncan and now this... What's wrong with me...? *sigh* Oh well, please, read on.  
  
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Okay, so there are days when everything goes your way, there are days when absolutely nothing turns out right, and then there are the days in between, where some things go right and some things go wrong.  
  
Those last ones are the ones you gotta watch out for. Those are the ones that can really come back to bite you. I mean, at least with the bad days, after a couple of things turn out wrong, you know the whole day's going to be bad. You don't have to guess. But with those in-between days, you just never know.  
  
Something great will happen, but then, before you know it, something really bad happens. Then, at the end of the day, you have to sit back and think, 'Did the positive things that happened to me today out-weigh the negative?'. It can be tough, I know.  
  
Take the time my powers grew, for instance. Sure, I won the MVP award for my soccer team that day, but I would have gladly traded that if I could just have avoided the traumatic experience of tearing apart the med-lab.  
  
And then there are the times when it turns out the other way, where the good things DO out-weigh the bad. Like the time Scott was captured by Mystique. Yes, I was tired and worn out from helping to rebuild our home. Yes, I was a little angry that I got paint on my favorite shirt. Yes, I was scared to death that I would never see Scott again. And yes, I ended up feeling really guilty for not telling him how I'd felt all these years. But, at the end of the day, all of those things just didn't seem very important, because I had Scott in my arms again, safe and sound, and that was all that really mattered to me.  
  
And then... there was THAT day...  
  
It was about three weeks ago. Scott and I were at were at McDonald's. It wasn't really a date. It was more of a get-away-from-the-mansion-before-the- younger-kids-drove-us-crazy lunch kind of trip. Neither of us were in the best of moods that day. I had woken up to find that Kitty had spilled ink on my nicest dress and Scott had had a training session with the newer mutants at 5am. Enough said.  
  
Anyway, we were about fifth in line when who should walk in but Taryn, Duncan, Josh, Mike, and Eric (some of Duncan's friends).  
  
"Hey! Look who it is, guys!" Josh had said. "It's our old pal, Scott Summers, and his whore."  
  
Scott tensed up and looked like he was going to kill them right then and there. I put my hand on his shoulder. ~It's okay, Scott. Just stay calm. It doesn't bother me~  
  
~Well, it bothers me...~ had been his only reply. He did, however, relax a little. Scott always amazes me. You could insult him all day; call him weak, stupid, a bad leader, a sissy, a freak; and he won't let it get under his skin. He just stays cool and calm. But insult *me* and he goes ballistic.  
  
The first few times he yelled at someone who had said something offensive to me, it irked me. It made me feel like he thought he owned me or something, but eventually I realized that that's just how Scott is.  
  
Getting back to my story.... He turned his back to them and started talking to me again, like he hadn't heard him. That really annoyed them. Mike and Eric came up behind him and spun him around.  
  
"Hey, we're talking to you, Summers!" Mike stated.  
  
"Leave us alone! We weren't bothering anybody," I yelled.  
  
"Stay out of this, freak. This is between us and this loser. We'll take care of you later."  
  
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Leave Jean alone!" Scott shouted. "Let's take this outside. Stay here, Jean." He added, conscious of the stares we were getting. Sighing, I got out of line, following them against Scott's will. They went to an empty field behind McDonald's.  
  
I stood off to the side as the guys started pushing each other around. Taryn stood near me. Not really with me, but close enough to hear me mutter about how stupid guys were.  
  
"At least you don't have to be around these four all the time," she muttered as if I was a person she just happened to be standing next to at a bus stop instead of the girl who'd been her best friend 5h-12th grade.  
  
I was surprised she spoke to me at all but still...  
  
"I used to," I reminded her.  
  
She sighed. We were quiet for a while, just watching the guys. "What did he do?"  
  
I looked over at her, unsure of what she meant. "Who?"  
  
She gestured to Scott. "What did he do to make them mad?"  
  
"Breathe." I answered. Now it was her turn to act confused. "We're mutants. That's enough of a reason for most humans."  
  
"That's not true." Taryn objected. "He must've done something."  
  
I shrugged. "Think what you will."  
  
She poked me so I would face her. "That's not true." She had a look in eyes like she wanted me to agree with her, but I knew I was right and I couldn't lie to her.  
  
I just smiled sadly and turned back to watch.  
  
"Come on, mutant! Hit us!" Josh tried to hit Scott, but Scott dodged.  
  
"I'm not going to fight you." He countered.  
  
I shook my head. So far, Scott could handle it by himself, but I knew there would be a point in this 'fight' where he would need some back-up.  
  
"Jean?" I turned back to Taryn, surprised. That was the first time she'd used my name since she knew I was a mutant.  
  
"Yes?" I replied.  
  
"I've always wondered... What made you do it?"  
  
"Do what?" There were so many things she could be referring to, I didn't even have a guess without reading her mind as to what she was talking about.  
  
"Why did your people attack that robot in the middle of a crowded street? How did you justify all of the lives lost during that stupid fight?" She asked, her voice filled with an anger that I realized must've been building ever since we fought the Sentinel in New York City.  
  
"Are you serious? We didn't attack that Sentinel!" I answered. "It attacked us! We were just defending ourselves. We didn't even know what was going on until three of my friends had already been captured."  
  
"Sure..." she said. She stayed quiet for a moment, but I knew that wasn't the end of what she wanted to say. Finally she started again. "My aunt was killed by an attack that the robot had aimed at your friend Kitty. She was an off duty police officer. She had gotten out of her car to see if she could help. She wasn't even supposed to be in that part of town, but she said she wanted to pick me up from the train station herself. I sat at the train station for three hours by myself, wondering what was keeping her..." A tear rolled down her face.  
  
"Oh, God, Taryn... I'm so sorry..." I put my arm around her shoulder. Then, all of the sudden something hit me in the back of the head. I fell to the ground, letting go of Taryn. I touched the back of my head and saw that I was bleeding. I looked up and saw Duncan standing over me.  
  
"Was this freak bothering you, Taryn?" he asked.  
  
"You jerk!" she yelled.  
  
"Jean!" Scott shouted, racing to my side. He leaned down and started checking the wound on my head. "Are you alright?" he asked.  
  
"I'll be fine..." I said. Duncan reached down a yanked Scott by the collar of his shirt and shoved him at Eric who shoved him back. "That's my queue..." I whispered, causing Taryn to look at me. I waved my hand and all four of the boys attacking Scott were sent flying backwards and onto the ground. They weren't hurt, but they weren't bothering Scott for the moment either. With another hand motion, Scott came flying to land gently next to me. "Are *you* alright?" I asked, giving him a smile.  
  
"I'll be fine," he smiled, taking a step back to stand between me and Taryn. I could tell that, even though she hadn't done anything to me, he still didn't trust her to not hit me any more than I trusted Duncan 7to not to hit Scott. And since Duncan WAS hitting Scott I'm sure you can see why he had gotten in between us.  
  
"Who did that?" Duncan yelled, standing up.  
  
I stepped forward, toward them. "I did. Care to try it again, Mr. Matthews?"  
  
He came at me again, but this time I was ready. Before he could blink, he was back on the ground with his buddies.  
  
That's about the time we heard the sirens. Someone must've seen the fight and dialed the police.  
  
"Crap..." Scott muttered. "Here we go again..."  
  
"Don't worry about it, Scott. We've been through this before and this won't be the last time." I smiled.  
  
"You two have been in jail before?" Taryn asked, clearly shocked.  
  
"Yeah," I laughed. "The police will do anything to put away another 'muttie scum'." Scott laughed wryly. Taryn got an unreadable look on her face. I would have liked to go into her mind and just know what it was she was thinking, but besides that being unethical, I was afraid at what I'd find if I did.  
  
The cops pulled up just as the boys were standing up.  
  
"What's going on out here?" One of the officers asked, getting out of their car. "Are these mutants bothering you kids?" he gestured at me and Scott.  
  
Duncan smirked and began faking a limp on his way over to the cop. "I'm so glad you got here! Who knows what these two would have done to us if you hadn't arrived when you did."  
  
"Alright," the officer sigh. "You two, come with me." We followed the cop to his car, not wanting to fight the police.  
  
"Please, sir. We didn't start the fight. We were just defending ourselves." I said sadly.  
  
He sighed again. "I'm sorry, Miss, but it's like this," he said, putting handcuffs on us. "With that new law they passed, it doesn't really matter what you two say. You're mutants. Now, if you have a human witness that says you didn't do it, THEN I could let you go... maybe. But as it is... I can't." We sighed.  
  
"Wait!" Taryn yelled right before we got into the back of the police car.  
  
"Yes?" the officer asked.  
  
"They didn't do it..." she said, quietly.  
  
"What're you doing, Taryn!?" Duncan yelled.  
  
"Shut up, Duncan!" she snapped. "Officer, these two really didn't start this fight. Those boys did. In fact, these two didn't even fight back. They just let themselves get beat up." She said, pointing at the wound on my head.  
  
The officer looked at her a moment before unlocking our handcuffs. "You're free to go." He said, getting back into his car, muttering about people wasting his time.  
  
"Wait!" Taryn yelled. "Aren't you going to arrest them?" she asked, meaning Duncan and his pals.  
  
"Nope. There's a law against beating up humans. Nothing says you can't beat up mutants. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm leaving." And he did.  
  
I just stared at Taryn for a moment.  
  
"Thanks," Scott said.  
  
"What made you do that?" I asked.  
  
"Well... I guess... I just realized something, I guess..." she said, going back over to Duncan and his friends.  
  
Scott put an arm around my waist, grinning from ear to ear. We both were, I suppose. We waved one last time at Taryn and they went inside. It was hard to believe that we had changed her mind, but we had. That one encounter had changed the mind of one of the more hostile mutant haters at our old school. That thought was very comforting. It just goes to show you that the Professor's right: people fear what they don't understand, but they can be reached.  
  
Scott and I skipped lunch that day. Neither of us were hungry anymore.  
  
So, that's it. You have your good days. You have your bad days. You have your in-between days. And then you have those days where, against all odds or logic, you actually did something great, something that matters.  
  
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END 


End file.
